Refer to the passage. "From the outbreak of the Mukden Incident till the end of the war the successive Japanese Governments refused to acknowledge that the hostilities in China constituted a war. They persistently called it an ‘Incident.’ With this as an excuse, the military authorities persistently asserted that the rules of war did not apply in the conduct of the hostilities.

This war was envisaged by Japan's military leaders as a punitive war, which was being fought to punish the people of China for their refusal to acknowledge the superiority and leadership of the Japanese race and to cooperate with Japan. These military leaders intended to make the war so brutal and savage in all its consequences as to break the will of the Chinese people to resist.

As the Southern movement advanced to cut off aid to Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek, the Chief-of-Staff of the Central China Expeditionary Force on 24 July 1939 sent an estimate of the situation to War Minister ITAGAKI. In that estimate of the situation, he said: ‘The Army Air Force should carry out attacks upon strategic points in the hinterland in order to terrorize the enemy forces and civilians, and so develop among them an anti-war, pacifist tendency. What we expect of offensive operations against the interior is the mental terror they will create among the enemy forces and civilians rather than the material damage inflicted direct upon enemy personnel and equipment. We will wait and see them falling into nervous prostration in an excess of terror and madly starting anti-Chiang and pacifist movements.’”

Judgment in the trial of Japan’s leadership for war crimes by the International Military Tribunal for the Far East, 1946

How accurate was War Minister Itagaki’s prediction of the effects of his crimes?

Mostly accurate; terror took a major toll on the Chinese war effort
Partially accurate; much of the public lost faith in Chiang, but they became unified in their resistance
Slightly accurate; civilians abandoned resistance, but Chiang’s army became radicalized
Not accurate; fear of further atrocities caused the Chinese to unite behind the nationalist cause